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Quidditch
playing the sport]] '''Quidditch '''was a very popular wizarding sport played on broomsticks. The object of a game was to score higher points than the opposing team by: scoring goals to gain ten points, and catching a Golden Snitch to gain one-hundred and fifty points. A game ended when the Snitch was caught, or the two Captains had an agreement. The length of the game depends on the players because it could be won in seconds, but could even take up to three months. Passion for the sport was the same to witches and wizards than that of football for Muggles. They had leagues and international tournaments, including the Quidditch World Cup held every four years. About Each side had seven players: a Keeper, a Seeker, three Chasers and two Beaters. Chasers caught and threw a Quaffle to each other to score a goal through one of three hoops. A Keeper had to save their ball, and stayed in the scoring area. Each goal awarded ten points. Beaters lobby Bludgers towards players using a club, to knock them off their broom and stop anyone scoring and saving a goal. People thought a Seeker's role in a game was of higher importance to a Keeper, Chasers and Beaters. A Seeker weaved around every player and every ball to find, pursue and catch a Golden Snitch (a tiny ball which has wings). A Seeker had to find and catch their ball first, because it will end the game and potentially win for their team. They needed to ensure their team will win if they catch the Snitch, because 150 points will not be of any value if it doesn't put their side in the lead. Matches A game began around a central circle. In the center of the circle, four balls were let go. Golden Snitches and Bludgers were bewitched to fly on their own, but a Quaffle needed to be thrown into the air, at which point a signal for the players to begin will be given. A Chaser will then catch the Quaffle and head towards a goalpost guarded by the other side's Keeper. They may throw the ball in any of three goalposts and win ten points. They could throw their ball to one of the other Chasers. Beaters will try to knock them over using Bludgers. Their opposing Chasers will try and grab their ball. A Keeper will try and save it. If they score, their opposing Keeper will throw the ball back into play. Seekers will begin looking for the Snitch. They should try and catch it when it will guarantee their side victory. If a Seeker saw it, they will race the other for it. They could fool each other by flying away if they saw it, because Seekers tended to tag each other. Snitches had flesh memories so they will show who caught it first. A game ended when a Seeker caught the Snitch, but the winner will needed to have higher points - a Snitch will not help you win unless your 150 points added up to put your side higher. A game goes on for however long it needed to until a Snitch was caught. A captain could demand a time-out whenever they wanted. Players could fly however high they wanted but had to keep in the boundary of the pitch. If a player broke a rule, the other team could be given a penalty, taken by a Chaser. A Keeper was the only player who could intervene, and try and save it. Equipment * Broomstick * Team jersey and cape * Gloves * Goggles when it rains * Beater's Bat (four players in one game will have one) * The Quaffle * Two Bludgers * One Snitch Pitches The pitches were in an oval shape, five-hundred feet long and one-hundred and eighty feet wide. In the center will be a small center circle about two feet in diameter. At each end of the pitch were three high hoops, the center hoop being a bit higher than the other two. Surrounding the pitch were high stands for spectators, including a platform circling the whole pitch. These pitches were located in places they wouldn't be easily found by Muggles and were enchanted. In 1362, it was decided that each pitch needed to be within 50 miles of a Muggle town. In 1368, it was changed to 100 miles. In 1398, Zacharias Mumps decided pitches had to be on abandoned moorlands. In 1419, the Wizards' Council told everyone they should not play anywhere near a place they could be spotted. In 1883, the scoring baskets were changed to open hoops. Rules The International Confederation of Wizards' Quidditch Committee enforced the rules of present-day Quidditch, which were determined by the Ministry of Magic in 1750. Known rules included: * Players should never go over the boundary lines of the pitch, but they could fly however high they wanted. The Quaffle was given to the other side if one of the players broke the rule. * The captain could demand a time-out whenever they wanted. The length of a time-out they got could, depended on how long a game had been played for. Every player needed to be back on the pitch before the game was scheduled to begin again, or the team will forfeit the match. If a game had been played for twelve hours, the players may have a two hour break. * A Chaser had to take a penalty. They needed to fly from the center circle of the pitch and head towards the scoring area. The Keeper should be the only person who will try to save it. The other players should not intervene. * Players should not seize hold of another player's broomstick, their body or clothes. * There should be no substitutions unless the game goes on for such a long time that the first players need to sleep. Then another team will be able take their place. * The players could take a wand on the pitch, but it should only be used in the event of a life-threatening situation. They should not attempt to put any spell on another player in the game, or a spectator, or on any of the balls. * A game could only be ended by a Seeker catching the Golden Snitch, or if both team Captains agreed to end it. * A Keeper should be the only one who attempted to block any shots thrown at the goal by a Chaser. * A Keeper shouldn't be attacked unless a ball was in the scoring area. Tactics ]] * Bludger's Backbeat - when the Beater will hit the Bludger with a back-hand swing in order to confuse the opposition. * Dionysus Dive - when the Chaser leaps on the broomstick upright and punches the Quaffle in the goal. * Dopplebeater Defence - both Beaters knock the same Bludger at the same time for extra power. * Double Eight Loop - the Keeper flying in front of the three goals in one loop in order to save a goal. * Hawkshead Attacking Formation - when the Chasers form an arrowhead pattern and fly together towards the goal. * Finbourgh Flick - the Chaser hits the Quaffle midair with the broomstick in one of the goals. * Parkin's Pincer - when two Chasers trap an opposing team's Chaser and the third on their own team commits blatching (the cheating tactic in which they purposely collide with a player). * Plumpton Pass - hiding the Snitch in the Seeker's sleeve to confuse the opponents. * Porskoff Play - one Chaser will fly upwards and then throw the ball down to the player right underneath them. * Sloth Grip Roll - hanging upside down on broom and gripping with hands and feet in order to avoid the Bludger. * Starfish and Stick - the Keeper holds the broom horizontally with one hand and foot around the handle and keeping their other limbs outstretched. * Transylvanian Tackle - when a player fake punches an opponent's nose to confuse them (it's legal if they don't actually touch them). * Woollongong Shimmy - the Chasers fly in a zig-zag motion to confuse the opposing team's Chasers. * Wronski Faint - the Seeker will sharply dive from a high height when pretending to have found and catch the Snitch, making the opposing team's Chaser follow them. The original Seeker will then pull up from the ground at the final second, making the other Seeker dive right at it and crash. Cheating There were seven-hundred known ways of cheating. Each case in the centuries it had been played was documentated and kept in the Department of Magical Games and Sports. They would not let anyway see these documents in case it gave people ideas, because a few cases would not even occur to an average player of being wrong. Quidditch Through the Ages explained a number of these cheating tactics employed by players, they included - * Blatching: Flying with the intent to collide (applied to every player). * Blurting: Locking broom handles with the intent to steer an opponent off course (applied to every player). * Bumphing: Hitting Bludgers towards spectators (applied to Beaters only). * Haversacking: Hand on the Quaffle when it goes through the goal hoop – the Quaffle should only be thrown through the goal (applied to Chasers only). * Quaffle-pocking: Tampering with the Quaffle – e.g. puncturing it and making it falls more quickly or zig-zags (applied to Chasers only). * Stooging: Two or three Chaser entering the scoring area (applied to Chasers only). The following cheating tactics were employed by players in the 1473 World Cup, when every single one of the known ways of cheating happened that day. * Transfiguring a Chaser into a polecat. * Attempted decapitation of a keeper with a broadsword. * The letting loose of one hundred blood-sucking vampire bats from under the robes of the Transylvanian captain. * Setting fire to an opponent's broom tail. * Attacking an opponent's broom with a club. * Attacking an opponent with an axe. History Ancient games The present-day game of Quidditch was derived from many ancient flying games. Pieces of each were combined together in order to create it. These archaic games were popular for the locals where it was played, but they never achieved an international feat. * Aingingein - invented in Ireland. People flew on broomsticks through barrels, which had been set alight in the air, clutching a ball in one hand. At the end of the course was a goal they had the throw the ball through. The player who completed the course in the shorter time was named the winner. * Creaothceann - invented in Scotland, and involved a number of boulders being enchanted in the air while each player had a cauldron on their head. When the horn was sounded, the boulders were let go and players had to catch a higher number of boulders in their cauldron to win. The game was outlawed many years ago, because it was a very violent game in which players had been killed. * Shuntbumps - invented in Devon, England. Players knocked however many people they could off their broom and the final one standing won. * Stitchstock - invented in Germany, a number of players pierced an inflated dragon bladder defended by the single Keeper, and whoever managed to do first won. * Swivenhodge - invented in Herefordshire, England. Players knocked an inflated pig's bladder at each other over a hedge. It was the only known ancient Quidditch game which involved a "ball" being passed. Evolution of Quidditch In 1050, a witch by the name of Gertie Keddle wrote in her diary about a game she watched in Queerditch Marsh and she continued to write about the game's evolution in later entries. Gertie was annoyed because the players dropped a ball in her cabbage patch. Gertie then confiscated the ball and hexed the man who asked her for it. She later wrote a second entry. They players now had a new ball which they began using for scoring goals. Their ball later evolved into the Quaffle. Her third diary entry introduced flying rocks bewitched to knock players off their broom. These flying rocks would later evolve into Bludgers. A known player that day was a "big Scottish warlock". Quidditch was not mentioned again by anyone again until around 1150 when Goodwin Kneen wrote a letter to a Norweigan cousin Olaf. The original name for the game was "Kwidditch" and it now had names for the players and equipment, and a few organised teams. Chasers were named "Catchers", and the Bludger was named the "Blooder". The goals were scored through hoops of barrels atop of high wooden planks. Evolution of the Golden Snitch By the time of Goodwin's letter, "Kwidditch" was becoming very popular and key elements found in the finalised game of Quidditch could be found. The beginnings of the Golden Snitch wouldn't start until a hundred years later in a game played in Kent, England in 1269. The game was attended by the Chief of the Wizards' Council, Barberus Bragge who brought a bird named the Golden Snidget (the kind of bird subject to a popular sport of Snidget hunting). Bragge let the Snidget loose and told the players whoever caught it would win 150 galleons. The bird was kept in the boundary of pitch by a spell so it couldn't escape. It flew at very high speeds and changed direction suddenly. Players spent the entire time chasing the Snidget rather than playing the game properly. One of the spectators was a witch named Modesty Rabnott who took pity on the Snidget and saved it using a Summoning Charm. She run away by putting the bird under her robes, but she was found by Bragge and fined ten galleons. Fortunately, she had let the bird loose and it flew away. But the damage was done to the Snidget species, because news of their involvement in the game led to the invention of a "Hunter" (later the Seeker) who would try to catch and kill a Snidget in every game for 150 points in honour of the prize money offered by Bragge. The number of Snidgets declined in high numbers and Elfrida Clagg of the Wizards' Council made it a protected species. The Modesty Rabnott Snidget sanctuary in Somerset was created in order to protect the Snidget's survival and the bird could no longer be used in Quidditch games. People needed to invent a suitable new substitute for the Snidget. Bowman Wright of Godric's Hollow invented a fake Snidget named a Golden Snitch - a golden ball the same size and weight of the Snidget with silver wings bewitched to follow it's flight pattern. It eliminated the need for anybody to spend the game confining it to the boundary of the pitch with spells, because it had a built-in charm which done the job. Wright's Golden Snitch was approved. Every single ball found in the present-day game was now being used. Later Quidditch ]] Because of the International Statute of Secrecy, every Ministry of Magic had a duty to stop any Muggles ever finding out about games held in their country. In Britain, the Department of Magical Games and Sports governed their games. Quidditch was played by local teams in the British and Irish Quidditch League Headquarters. ]] Notes and sources Category:Wizarding sports and games